An employee was injured after being physically assaulted when anti-Israel protesters stormed a building in Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia University, while classes were ongoing.
By Rachel Avraham
An employee was injured after being physically assaulted when anti-Israel protesters stormed a building in Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia University, while classes were ongoing, the Hill reported. According to the report, Robin Levine, Barnard College’s vice president for strategic communications, said masked protesters forcibly entered Milbank Hall on Wednesday and encouraged others to come on campus without identifying themselves. The employee who was physically assaulted upon them storming the campus is now in the hospital, the Hill reported.
Demonstrators could be seen wearing masks and keffiyehs, the traditional Palestinian scarf, while banging drums, clapping their hands and chanting into megaphones, in a video posted to X by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, USA Today reported. According to the report, Palestinian flags were taped on the wall beside colorful graffiti reading “FREE PALESTINE” and “F*** BARNARD / AMNESTY NOW.”
USA Today reported that the anti-Israel students were demanding amnesty for two Barnard students who were expelled for disrupting a class titled the “History of Modern Israel.” According to the Jerusalem Post, “Disruption until divestment, resistance until return, agitation until amnesty,” warned activists on social media and physical flyers. “We will not stop until our demands are met. Free Palestine.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, for at least six hours, the anti-Israel activists occupied the administrative offices, restricting the movement of employees and cancelling classes while chanting and drumming. CNN reported that the demonstration was organized by Columbia University Divest and was part of a week of action demanding the reinstatement of the two expelled students. According to the report, a video published by Columbia SJP showed student activists jeering at Dean Leslie Grinage as she passed through the crowd after allegedly asking for permission to use the bathroom.
“We have made multiple good-faith efforts to de-escalate. Barnard leadership offered to meet with the protesters — just as we meet with all members of our community — on one simple condition: Remove their masks,” Levine told the Hill. “They refused. We have also offered mediation.”
According to USA Today, the anti-Israel students were warned if they did not vacate the building by 9:30 p.m., Barnard, an affiliate of Columbia University, would “be forced to consider additional, necessary measures to protect our campus,” the school’s Vice President for Strategic Communications Robin Levine said in a statement Wednesday evening.
“Thanks to the efforts of our staff and faculty, the protesters left before the deadline without more trouble,” Levine said. “Barnard is a place of learning. Respect, inclusivity, and safety are non-negotiable. Violence and intimidation have no place here.”
Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote on X, “A aggressive mob has taken over a building at Columbia University, demanding “intifada revolution,” which is a call to violence against the Jewish State. Is Columbia University going to stand by and allow an aggressive mob to engage in a hostile takeover of its property and create a hostile environment for its Jewish students? A university that fails to hold violent agitators accountable should itself be held accountable.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, the House Committee on Education and Workforce said on X Wednesday that Barnard was right to expel the two students who were involved in the distribution of flyers that included calls to “Crush Zionism,” and depicted a boot stepping on a broken Star of David. “Negotiating with pro-terror protestors who are breaking campus policies should be out of the question,” the committee said.
Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) CEO Sacha Roytman has warned that if the heads of Barnard College reinstate two expelled students who violently entered a class on Israel at Columbia University threatening the attending students last month, then it will demonstrate that Jewish lives do not matter and give a green light for continued violence. “The invasion by pro-Palestinian rioters of a building at Barnard College, which included calls for the murder of Jews, is a disturbing act of antisemitism, which is sadly not the first of its kind at this college, or its affiliate, Columbia University,” said Roytman. “Since October 7th, a wave of antisemitism, violence, terrorism, and hate crimes has flooded campuses, universities, and colleges, which have transformed them from educational institutions into battlefields.”
“If the leaders of Barnard College succumb to these outrageous and violent threats, then it will show Jewish lives truly do not matter in their eyes, and this will provide a sense of legitimacy to those who call for violence and murder of Jews,” he added. “This is an important test for university heads, and one they dare not fail, or their campuses will turn into battlefields.”
As the protesters still held positions in the campus building, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Anti-Defamation League New York and New Jersey branches called for the college to uphold its code of conduct. According to the report, the American Jewish Committee said that the “tired antics” of Wednesday night were tactics “pulled from the playbook of the last 16 months at this school.”
The Jerusalem Post also reported that Knesset Member Dan Illouz, who had just a week ago met with Jewish Columbia University students, called for “Immediate and decisive action” to “restore order and protect Jewish students,” adding: “Pro-terror extremists have crossed every red line—seizing buildings by force, attacking staff, and calling for an intifada. This is not a protest; it is terrorism. The free world cannot stand idly by as universities become breeding grounds for violent incitement.”
